Occupy thugs repay Bishop Tobin's charity with violence against chidlren

On January 25, Thomas Tobin, the Bishop of Providence, decided to reach out to “Occupy Providence” by allowing the homeless to seek shelter in Catholic churches; the city had turned down a request by the group to set up daytime shelters. The next day, “Occupy Providence” activists showed their gratitude by crashing a pro-life rally, shouting down a speaker, stopping a priest from offering a closing prayer, and throwing condoms at Catholic schoolgirls. In short, these left-wing activists have turned into urban bullies who need to be stopped.

To say that Catholic bashing is in vogue is an understatement. From President Obama who is seeking to intimidate Catholic institutions by forcing them to prostitute their moral convictions, to “Occupy” maniacs who respond to goodwill by engaging in thuggery, it is open season on Catholics. We will do what we can to constructively channel the anger, which is palpable.

Contact “Occupy Providence” official Susan Beaty: beaty.susan@gmail.com

Obama finally crosses the line with HHS contraception mandate

I felt a curious sense of elation while reading the outpouring of outrage over the HHS mandate that Catholic institutions have one year to offer contraceptive coverage to employees and patients. I was pleasantly surprised to note that outrage has come not only from the expected sources like USCCB Head Cardinal Designate Timothy Dolan    but even some surprising quarters like Cardinal Roger Mahony and EJDionne. who said,

Speaking as a Catholic, I wish the Church would be more open on the contraception question. But speaking as an American liberal who believes that religious pluralism imposes certain obligations on government, I think the Church’s leaders had a right to ask for broader relief from a contraception mandate that would require it to act against its own teachings. The administration should have done more to balance the competing liberty interests here.

One of my favorite quotes on this situation is "Obama has done what the Pope has failed to do, unite US Bishops". Reading this I began to understand my positive feelings toward what is clearly a threat to the First Amendment rights of Catholics. I am pleased to see Catholics of all stripes actually care about the fact that our institutions will be forced to provide contraception/abortifacients for our patients and employees. Read a roundup of reactions to the mandate at MercatorNet article here. 

Like most orthodox Catholics I have become a bit cynical over thedecades of Catholic indifference on the contraception issue. You don't have to go any further than TV/radio host Sean Hannity to see a Catholic passionately justify his flouting of Church teaching.  Here are some of my experiences of how casually the Church's ban on contraception has disregarded.

Twenty years ago, a Catholic nun was running a health fair in my parish on Long Island. I suggested that a couple who teach Natural Family Planning run a booth helping young couples like my new husband and I plan our families with respect for Church teaching. She gave me a disdainful look and reminded me that the parish allowed her to work as a social worker for federal funds, and that precluded her from doing anything "Catholic" like NFP.

I was not stunned, I had seen the same phenomenon as a social worker at Catholic Charities in the eighties. When a church or social service agency accepts government funds it accepts government control. The difference is, up until now the encroachments have been gradual and voluntarily accepted by the faithful themselves. After all, how many Catholics entered that health fair seeking Natural Family Planning?

When my husband and I took the diocesan course in preparation for marriage, half the couples were using NFP because too many years of contraceptives had left them sterile. Few were doing it in obedience to Humanae Vitae. In fact, NFP training should have been part of our Pre-Cana program, but the couple running the program admitted they used the pill and it "worked for them".I didn't bother reporting this to the pastor of the parish, I knew I would be met with a shrug.

A great majority of Catholics have disregarded Church teaching on contraception, in fact the Sisters of Mercy who taught me at the all girls high school I attended, instructed us on how to use it and where to obtain it, warning us not to let our parents see our notebooks. My mother did, and was horrified.

Contraception has been widely accepted in the Catholic community for nearly half a century. So why the fuss over the HHS mandate that Catholic institutions provide contraception for its employees?  Perhaps we as a Church thought it was our dirty little secret. We convinced ourselves that no one outside knew how few Catholics actually obeyed this Church teaching to have the marital act be perpetually open to life. Except the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the Guttmacher Institute who reported last spring in the Huffington Post that 98% of Catholic women have used contraceptives. They have been dispensing contraceptives to Catholics for decades.Shame on us! So now we are outraged to be forced to do what we have been volunteering to do for half a century.

Elizabeth Scalia explains.

With the administration’s decision, the covert culture of death has finally made a truly overt move against the culture of life. 

PP Director Cecile Richards with Obama

 Obama just had the arrogance to think we wouldn't care if he was open about it. After all, when Rick Santorum explained how contraception led us to the legalization of abortion, Catholics yawned while the media attacked him. So Obama assumed, carefully advised by liberal Catholics friendly to his administration who helped him get Obamacare approved, that just one more push and he'd have Catholics on the ropes. No one cares about contraception, then we can use this mandate to force abortion down the line.

After all, it worked for Bill Baird an abortion clinic owner whose case in the Supreme Court made it legal for unmarried couples to obtain contraception, creating a gold mine for abortionists like himself.
Here's a little history of Bill Baird's activism from the website "The Pro-Choice League". Note how birth control leads to abortion.

Some facts about Pro Choice League's founder Bill Baird:March 22 is the anniversary of Baird v. Eisenstadt, his 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case that legalized birth control for all Americans (replacing the 1965 decision for married couples only).  Baird v. Eisenstadt was a landmark case that became the bedrock of countless privacy cases such as Roe v. Wade and the gay rights victory Lawrence v. Texas (2003).  1964  - Baird established the nation's first aboveground abortion referral and birth control clinic (Well before abortion was legal facing a potential 10-year jail term). 1965 - Baird led the first demonstration ever outside of St. Patrick's Cathedral against the Church's stance against birth control for all citizens not only Catholics. 1965 - Established the nation's first birth control and abortion club on a college campus (Hofstra University - NY) 1965 & 1966 Challenged anti-birth control statutes in New York and then New Jersey for which he was arrested and jailed. 1967 - established the nation's first "abortion slush fund" to help students pay for illegal abortions. 1967 Baird led another march against the Catholic Church saying "... no religion has a right to impose its dogma on others."

Note how his activism lead to the legalization of all kinds of perversion from abortion to homosexuality. When Catholics disregarded Humanae Vitae in the sixties, they gave Bill Baird, Planned Parenthood, their ally,  Barack Obama the abortion president, the opening they needed to slowly and covertly undermine the Church's influence on the culture.
 Until Humanae Vitae in 1967, Catholics were holding the line on morality, keeping sexuality largely inside marriage, but our hedonism and love of government money provided the opening for the intolerable situation we find ourselves in today, where our Catholic institutions will have to pay for contraceptives and abortificients. Its time to shut the barn door, but the horse has already escaped.

Senator Marco Rubio

Rick and Bella Santorum

I am grateful for the opportunity to see my Church unite behind this issue and hope it becomes a teachable moment on how our own sinfulness created this weakness which Obama so wickedly exploited. I bet he and his staff are shocked at the amount of outrage they created, and are hoping it dies down in time for the election.

Thanks to Senator Marco Rubio, son of Cuban refugees and no stranger to creeping religious oppression, for introducing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012. 
Rick Santorum and Marco Rubio have shown the moral courage which the Kennedys  and the Cuomos lacked when abortion was overtaking our formerly moral culture. They along with bishops like Robert Tobin of Rhode Island, Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia,  and Fabian Bruskewitz of Nebraska have long held such Catholic politicians' feet to the fire on life issues. Now the Johnnny-come-latelies are at long last realizing where ignoring the Church's teaching on contraception has led. May this moment be one of conversion of all hearts on this issue, and bond us together into a force for authentic moral reform in this nation. This is what can save America from total implosion.

Bella Santorum recovering from double pneumonia

From the Family Research Council:

If you've been following the Santorum campaign, then you know Rick and his wife, Karen, had quite a scare last weekend when their littlest daughter, Bella, was hospitalized. The Santorums' three-year-old suffers from a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, and a complication like pneumonia can be deadly. Rick cancelled his campaign appearances to be with Bella, but they're happy to report that their daughter is making a miraculous recovery.

I had the opportunity to talk with Fox News's Megyn Kelly yesterday about Bella Santorum and kids like her. FRC had just finished up a special conference on the topic of prenatal disability diagnosis. Tragically, about 90% of the kids who have conditions like Bella's are aborted. Sometimes parents are misled into thinking that their baby or their family will have a poor quality of life. But a study released this fall found the opposite. It showed that adolescent children with Down Syndrome are actually very happy--off-the-charts happy compared to the average teenager. And of all those parents who followed through and had their children, 97% were proud of them. Seventy-nine percent said their outlook on life was more positive because of their Down Syndrome child. Just ask the Santorums. Rick and Karen admit that Bella has some difficulties, but she brings them more joy than anyone could imagine. Join us in praying for a complete and speedy recovery!

See Megan Kelly interview Tony Perkins about Rick and Bella Santorum here. 

Why Santorum is a lightning rod and a savior

It is painfully clear why the liberal left hates Rick Santorum; its his stand on moral issues. But where does that visceral hatred originate? It goes way beyond partisanship, to deep emotional wounds which are the consequences of the very sexual immorality he opposes.Otherwise there would be opposition to him but not hatred. And sadly I don't believe its limited to the left. I think millions of Republicans have hatred for him because he occupies the high moral ground which they have ceded to the culture of death and they, instead of seeking healing by supporting him, are trying to silence his voice.

Most of this is a result of the pain caused by abortion. It is said that forty percent of women have had an abortion in the USA, many of them repeat abortions. This is creating untold, unspoken, buried suffering in millions of women and men, and it makes me angry. I am not so angry at those who have had abortions, many of them were lied to, told there was no baby, it would not affect them any more than an appendectomy, that their problems would be solved, or in the case of special needs children, that they were being good parents and sparing their children suffering. I am angry at those whose livelihood require perpetuating this lie. Like the Planned Parenthood reps who invaded the public high schools in minority neighborhoods where I taught to encourage sexual promiscuity with a wink, knowing that such activity would lead these youths into the abortion mill where Planned Parenthood makes its living. According to an article in the Star Exponent on Bella Santorum and abortion;

British Journal of Psychiatry contains the research findings of Prof. Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D. of Bowling Green State University entitled, “Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995–2009”.
Dr. Coleman concludes that: “Based on data extracted from 22 studies, the results of this meta-analytic review of the abortion and mental health literature indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the procedure…Overall, the results revealed that women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81% increased risk of mental health problems"

So many Republicans have not been living up to those moral ideals held by Santorum, and are suffering the regret and denial which post-abortive women and men suffer, but instead of seeking healing, they are shooting the messenger, moral issue candidate Rick Santorum with a long, faithful marriage and eight children (one of whom Gabriel has left this world for heaven). Most of his fellow Catholics are using forbidden contraception, and hate Santorum for correctly stating that is is the cause of abortion in this nation. The great majority of abortions are performed on women whose contraception has failed, in fact the Supreme Court used our dependence on contraception as an excuse for abortion according to Professor Janet Smith;

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the recent Supreme Court decision that confirmed Roe v. Wade, stated, "in some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception . . . . for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

So, I firmly believe that there is a large, but silent group of Republicans and Catholics who know Santorum is right on abortion and marriage but that to endorse him would mean they would have to face their own moral failures, choose instead to support Newt whose serial adulteries and three marriages make them feel more comfortable or Mitt whose liberal past makes his protestations of moral conservatism laughable.

Rush Limbaugh once said, after Bill Clinton was elected that we get the candidate we deserve. He was referring to Clinton's addictive womanizing which he covered up by perjury which brought on his impeachment, and lowered the moral tone of the nation. My homeschooled Catholic children know what oral sex is thanks to Bill Clinton. Now we have a president who is mandating birth control coverage by Catholic institutions, and soon abortions will be forced upon them as well either causing them to cave in and cease being a light in the darkness or close their doors. Obama had a slight majority of the Catholic vote, and useful Catholic idiots like Biden, Pelosi, Doug Kmiec and Chris Matthews on his side. Once again, we got the immoral president we deserve.

Do we deserve Rick Santorum? Perhaps not, but I have hope that the Obama Administration's arrogance and recent overreaching may yet awakened the sleeping giant of Catholic conscience, and remind us that the only candidate who reflects our all important moral values was just off the campaign trail to be at his daughter Bella Maria's bedside in the hospital this weekend.

We are at a crossroads. This may be our last chance to try and regain the family structure and moral stability on which American was built. We cannot afford the social programs required by the social and economic chaos created by the rampant promiscuity in America :welfare, prisons, subsidized contraception and abortion, and food stamps to replace responsible, married love and solid moral character supported by good parenting.Rush Limbaugh in a transcript from his show, admits Santorum is right on the link between social and economic issues.

I have the greatest admiration for Santorum. He had a statement or debate, somebody, a think tank person, Brookings or whatever, something like three things -- it might not have been Brookings, but some think tank -- three things you could do that take care of income inequality, that take care of cultural rot, and they were all family-oriented type issues, and one of them was don't have kids before you get married. It's amazing when you look at the numbers of single-parent households, out of wedlock births. If you look at that definition, if you accept it as a sign of the disintegration of culture, the family breakup, it is amazing. Santorum is right.

Santorum offers us a way out; support the family and restore moral, civil and financial order. Are we wise enough and moral enough to take him up on it?

David Limbaugh endorses Rick Santorum

Let's Honor, Not Stretch, the Buckley Rule By: David Limbaugh http://www.davidlimbaugh.com/mt/archives/2012/01/new_column_lets_2.html In the intense heat of the present, it is easy to forget even the relatively recent past, but it seems to me that this GOP primary season is more acrimonious than the past few, probably because the stakes are so high... ... Conservatives are fighting among themselves about not just who the best candidate would be but also who is most electable. Sure, electability has always been an issue, but now some are saying that to support someone, it's essential not only that we show he is electable but also that he is the most electable. This amounts to replacing the "Buckley rule" -- that "we should support the most conservative candidate who is electable" -- with "we should support the most electable candidate, provided he is at least marginally conservative." We saw a similar political calculus at work during the debt ceiling negotiations. Some argued that we couldn't buck Obama on his specious smoke-and-mirrors cuts, because to draw a line in thesand, even though correct in principle, could have been interpreted by the electorate as uncompromising and enhanced Obama's re-election efforts. Everything had to be focused on 2012. Now many of the same people are telling us that we have to compromise on 2012, as well, that we can't support a candidate who is more conservative, even during the primary, because it would reduce our chances of defeating Obama. I appreciate the concern, but the logical extension of this kind of thinking is that we all have to become mini political operatives, always engaging first in strategic political calculations and never voting our hearts. Such is the formula for sacrificing one's dreams and aspirations; such is the avenue toward fatalistic resignation, compromise and settling for less without even trying to push for your real goals; such is the formula for guaranteeing that we never elect another Ronald Reagan conservative. I am the first to say that once the GOP nominee is chosen, we must unite around the candidate to defeat Barack Obama. Until then, I refuse to surrender to pressure to abandon my passion for true, reliable conservatism, especially from those whose idea of electability is highly debatable and from others whose assessment is hopelessly skewed by their own preferences. In this volatile season, dark horses have skyrocketed to lead the field, and some might have remained there but for alleged scandals or other factors. I don't believe that the science of electability is as certain as those promoting it would have us believe. We can't even agree on whether the key is wooing the center or igniting the base. It is complex and fluid and largely unknowable. Even current polls hypothetically matching Obama against different candidates tell us very little, because the Democratic attack machine has yet to unleash its $1 billion assault on, say, Mitt Romney. I reject the conventional wisdom that Rick Santorum could not win the general election, because I believe he represents the best contrast to Obama and is the least vulnerable to attack, among other reasons. I have varying concerns about the other candidates, but I respect their respective supporters and realize that some of them even believe their candidate is the most conservative of the group, though I disagree. I will support whoever emerges as the Republican nominee, but I do not apologize for supporting Rick Santorum.

To learn more about former Senator Rick Santorum, please visit www.RickSantorum.com.

My interview on "National Review"

While in Washington for book signings, my Pre-natal Diagnosis Conference, and the March for Life, I was able to meet National Review columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez. We had already collaborated on this interview for National Review which came out today.

Here's a sneak peak;

LOPEZ: Do you see your book as important for marriages?

VELASQUEZ: Not all married couples will face a prenatal diagnosis of a special-needs baby, but it is certain that all marriages will face major challenges. Life sends us unexpected crises: infidelity, death of a parent, loss of a home or a job, addiction. Learning from the couples who dealt with potentially marriage-wrecking obstacles and emerged from the crisis stronger, more forgiving, and more loving is invaluable. It’s the basis for self-help groups from AA toRetrouvaille. I want married readers to note that the couples who contributed to this book grew closer to God in response to the challenges they faced raising their special-needs child, and, as a result, grew closer to one another. The child who precipitated a marital crisis became a source of healing for the entire family.

Leticia Velasquez - A Special Mother is Born

Conference on Medical Advances in Pre-natal Diagnoses

Warren Buffett is an anti Catholic

WHY WARREN BUFFETT IS ANTI-CATHOLIC

January 25, 2012

 

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on an aspect of Warren Buffett’s finances not ordinarily discussed:

Warren Buffett’s comment that the rich should pay higher taxes, now enshrined by President Barack Obama as the “Buffett Rule,” is drawing much applause. What is not being discussed is the billionaire’s support for anti-Catholicism. First some background information.

Over several decades, Buffett has spent a fortune funding radical abortion organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood; he has lavishly given money to train a new generation of abortion physicians; he has spent millions to help RU-486 (the abortion-inducing drug) to win FDA approval; and he gave his pro-abortion, population-control friends at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation nearly $31 billion in 2006 for more of the same. There’s nothing anti-Catholic about any of this, but when he intentionally seeks to subvert Catholicism by dishonestly funding pro-abortion organizations that have hijacked the Catholic name, that’s another story.

To be specific, Buffett has given hundreds of millions over the years to anti-Catholic front groups like Catholics for Choice (formerly Catholics for a Free Choice) and its sister organization in Latin America, Catholics for the Right to Decide. In 2010, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation alone gave $759,822 to the former, and almost $1.7 million to the latter. These letter-head organizations wouldn’t exist if they depended on donations from members—they don’t have any—they exist because of the likes of Warren Buffett.

If Buffett, or someone like him, were to throw millions upon millions funding Jews for Jesus, what would the Jewish community call him? Now you know why Warren Buffett has earned the tag anti-Catholic. 


Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone:             212-371-3191      
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org

Dr James Dobson endorses Rick Santorum for president

The Rick Santorum for President campaign is proud to announced that Rick Santorum has received the endorsement of Dr. James Dobson.

Dr. James Dobson said: "The institution of the family is the key issue facing this great nation. It is the foundation, the bedrock, upon which every dimension of Western Civilization rests. If it is undermined or weakened by cultural and governmental forces, the entire superstructure will collapse in short order. And indeed, today it is in serious jeopardy. The very definition of marriage is threatened, which has implications for the next generation and the stability of society itself.

Of all the Republican candidates who are vying for the presidency, former Sen. Santorum is the one who has spoken passionately in every debate about this concern. He has pleaded with the nation and its leaders to come to the aid of marriages, parents, and their children. What a refreshing message. The Congress voted in 1969 to impose a marriage penalty tax on husbands and wives who were struggling to raise their children. That unfair tax continued for 32 years, until George W. Bush rolled it back. Now, if Democrats and some Republicans have their way, the marriage penalty tax will be re-imposed in 2013. We desperately need a president who will intercede on behalf of those who are caring for the next generation and working to build this nation.

"While there are other GOP candidates who are worthy of our support, Sen. Santorum is the man of the hour. His knowledge of international politics, especially Israel and the turmoil in the Middle East, is highly relevant to the dangerous world in which we live. This is why I am endorsing former Senator Rick Santorum for president of the United States, and urge my countrymen to join us in this campaign."

Rick Santorum said: "I am truly honored to receive Dr. Dobson's endorsement today. Dr. Dobson has been a light for conservative movement, an unwavering leader in the face of forces both within and outside our Party to call a truce on the foundational principles that make our nation the greatest in the history of the world, but he knows that calling a truce is nothing more than surrendering. I commit to never surrender our principles, our foundational values, and the moral enterprise that is America. I am excited to work with Dr. Dobson in the weeks to come as we build upon our momentum generated from our Iowa Caucus win."

James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is founder and chairman emeritus of Focus on the Family, a non-profit, multimedia organization with a global reach. As founder, Dr. Dobson's vision and philosophical perspectives shaped Focus on the Family at its inception and supplied the impetus for its outreach for the first three decades of its existence. Even though a new generation of leadership now bears responsibility for carrying out the ministry's mission, Dr. Dobson's influence remains significant.

To learn more about former Senator Rick Santorum, please visit www.RickSantorum.com.

This should be a game changer for Santorum in South Carolina, Dr Dobson's endorsement is key to family values advocates like me who raised my family listening to "Focus on the Family". I hope that South Carolina voters can hear Dr Dobson's call for a restoration of the American family amid the cacaphony of media chatter. If not, we may be at the point of no return as a society, as we descend further into economic and social chaos. We may be on the downward trajectory which destroys all great civilizations, moral laxity.  Our leaders fed our appetites with bread and circuses, and fiddled like Nero while Rome burned down around us.

"Rebellion"

Santorum condemns Obama's rejection of Keystone pipeline as irresponsible

Rick Santorum said: "Today's decision by the Obama Administration is but another capitulation to the radical environmental fringe - and in turn putting our national security and economy at risk. Our nation needs energy and this pipeline will provide this much needed resource. In rejecting this responsible project that will create thousands of American jobs, we are simply diverting this energy to our international competitors like China. This announcement is utterly irresponsible and one more reason why Barack Obama is not the right man to lead this country. As President, I would approve the Pipeline on day-one."

Stop the Shredding of American Values, Vote Santorum

Easy Answer

Conference on Medical Advances in Prenatal Diagnoses

Council on Poor Prenatal Diagnoses

& Therapeutic Intervention

Founding Partners:

Medical Students for Life, Family Research Council,

Keep Infants with Down Syndrome & Jérôme Lejeune Foundation USA

First Annual

Conference on Medical Advances in Prenatal Diagnoses

Saturday, January 21, 8:30 am – 5 pm

Family Research Council, 801 G Street, NW , Washington DC

Register at http://www.frc.org/events or watch webcast @www.frc.org

 Presenters include:

Alberto Costa, MD, Ph.D.

Byron Calhoun, MD

John Bruchalski, MD

David Prentice, Ph.D.

Gerard Nadal, Ph.D.

The Conference will bring together professionals from many different specialty areas, including genetic researchers, ob/gyn physicians, developmental pediatricians, hospital nursing staff, medical genetic counselors and medical students.  Other invited participants and guests include peer ministry providers, social service support professionals, advocates for persons with disabilities and public policy specialists. 

The goals of the Conference are:

·       affirm the life and dignity of all persons, especially those diagnosed prenatally with a disability or lethal condition

·       review how information about prenatal diagnoses of disability or lethal condition is currently delivered

·       consider how this information might be delivered more comprehensively

·       consider the impact of a new blood test for Down syndrome in obstetric care

·       explain the work of the Council and its year-long engagement on prenatal diagnosis issues

·       review best practices for postnatal care of infants with disabilities in perinatal hospice and in hospital, home and medical daycare settings

An agenda for the day will be available soon. Our host for the day, the Family Research Council (FRC), has limited space, so this first Conference is by invitation only.  However, FRC will be webcasting all general sessions that day, which can be viewed viawww.frc.org.  For more information, contact Jeanne Monahan at Family Research Council, jfm@frc.org ( 202- 225-4008) or Peg Kolm, at mkolm@adw.org (240-994-0603).  We welcome your interest and expertise in this effort, and hope you can join us on January 21.

Baby Amelia's case it not the only one: Bella Santorum

A tragically true story going viral on the internet is the story of how CHOP refused a kidney transplant to baby Amelia because she is 'retarded', read it in all its horrifying detail  here. 

I put my hand up. “Stop talking for a minute. Did you just say that Amelia shouldn’t have the transplant done because she is mentally retarded. I am confused. Did you really just say that?”

The tears. Oh, the damn tears. Where did they come from? Niagara Falls. All at once. There was no warning. I couldn’t stop them. There were no tissues in conference room so I use my sleeve and my hands and I keep wiping telling myself to stop it.
I point to the paper and he lets me rant a minute. I can’t stop pointing to the paper. “This phrase. This word. This is why she can’t have the transplant done.”
“Yes.”
I begin to shake. My whole body trembles and he begins to tell me how she will never be able to get on the waiting list because she is mentally retarded.

Health Care for Gunner Press Conference

I wish I could say it was an isolated case, but it seems to be standard procedure that our less-than-perfect children are excluded from medical treatment given to normal children. Because of their so-called 'low quality of life'.
But who determines that? Panels of doctors, soon to be replaced by government bureaucrats (which Sarah Palin called "Death Panels") if Obamacare continues without the Supreme Court striking it down. At least Amelia's doctor knew her. These bureaucrats will be in some office building in DC making life-or-death decisions for my child with Down syndrome.
They obviously haven't read the article by Dr Brian Skotko in Medical Genetics where he describes the results of his survey of satisfaction in families with a member with Down syndrome. Respondents say that 99% are happy with their child with Down syndrome, and 99% of the children are happy with life. Even 89%  the siblings report that they are 'better people' for having a special needs sibling.
I know this, my daughter Christina is nine and her two older sisters, her father and I grateful to God for the positive changes she has brought to our home, just by being herself. We can't imagine life without her and, yet we have had to fight sometimes for her right to exist. I co-founded KIDS (Keep Infants with Down Syndrome) to call attention to this fight for life of children with Down syndrome. From the moment they are diagnosed in the womb to their last breath, there are medical personnel who argue their live are not worth medical treatment.

It happened to the Santorums. Their daughter Bella has trisomy 18. When she left the hospital after her birth she was on oxygen. Her doctor tried to put her on hospice care at home with NO oxygen. Was she dying? No! She has a condition deemed 'incompatible with life'. Statistically speaking, she shouldn't be alive now. Only ten percent of babies with Edward's syndrome make it to birth, and of those, only ten percent make it to their first birthday. Statistics were stacked up against Bella Santorum. But she has fighters for parents!

Attorney and neo-natal nurse Karen Santorum, aka Mother Bear stood up. . . and Bella got oxygen. Three years later she is the heart of the Santorum home.Watch Rick's testimony about Bella's birth at the Thanksgiving Family  Summit.




Read Rick's other story about Bella, "Two Years Worth Every Tear" in my book "A Special Mother is Born".

That's what motivated me to join Kristin Hawkins in her Health Care for Gunner press conference in September 2009. Parents of special needs children and adults with special needs joined Reps Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ) to state our concerns that Obamacare may have to be rationed and that we feared our children would be denied health care. It was covered by the AP and in dozens of news outlets around the nation. But Obamacare passed by the slimmest of margins, and is the law of the land. 
Unless we elect a man like Rick Santorum who has walked in our shoes as parents of special needs children, and promises not only to overturn Obamacare but to be an advocate for vulnerable children like Bella Santorum and Christina Velasquez in the White House.